There’ll be no Class of 2013 recruits mentioned in this column, because none of them has reached a meaningful destination. There are no success stories among them, not yet. The same will be true Wednesday, when schools across the FBS ranks show off their recruiting hauls.

Making it to college on scholarship is hard, but isn’t that where the “earning it” part of things really begins?

Cornball as it sounds, I was reminded of National Signing Day the other night while watching “Saving Private Ryan” on television. There’s that unforgettable scene in which Tom Hanks’ dying character tells the World War II film’s titular character, played by Matt Damon, to “earn” the saving of his life.

The hundreds of college-bound football players we’ll hear of Wednesday have all worked hard to get where they are. The moms, dads, grandparents, teachers and others who’ve loved, supported and protected them have worked hard, too. But if this is the end of one road for these young men, it’s merely the beginning of a much longer, wider, more exciting and more perilous one.

I also was reminded of National Signing Day while watching Cris Carter cry in New Orleans over the weekend. Many folks are aware that drug use knocked Carter off the tracks early in his NFL career, and that only after he moved from Philadelphia to Minneapolis did he begin to build a Hall of Fame resume and reputation. But how many recall that Carter earlier cost himself his entire senior season at Ohio State after getting busted for signing with an agent?

Carter began his formal association with the Buckeyes as a star recruit and ended it in shame, adrift. It worked out in the end for him, obviously. But for so many whose names we read throughout the day Wednesday, things won’t work out.

If there’s one thing every Class of 2013 member must understand, it’s this: Even if picking a school feels like the biggest decision of his life—even if donning a ballcap before the cameras feels like the biggest moment—these are minor things compared with what’s to come.

There’ll be bigger, more formative choices to make almost every day.

Will he dive into school? Leave bad influences behind and avoid new ones? Listen to coaches (without following them blindly)?

Will he take care of his body? Respect women? Prepare for life—whatever it brings—after college?

Raise your hand if you think any of Sporting News’ top three running backs from the Class of 2010 thought this would happen to him:

—Marcus Lattimore, after an All-American season as a true freshman at South Carolina, tore the ACL in his left knee as a sophomore and, a year later, completely blew out his right knee. Now, he’s leaving school early in hopes some NFL team will draft him. Hope for him that he’s made the conscious decision to engage in the subject of his non-football future, because it might come about soon.

—Lache Seastrunk went to Oregon expecting to get on the field right away but instead languished there as a redshirt, then found himself caught up in a recruiting scandal and transferred to Baylor, where he sat out a season before spending much of the 2012 campaign as the Bears’ third-stringer.

—Michael Dyer, after a glorious debut season in which he broke Bo Jackson’s freshman rushing record at Auburn and gave an MVP performance in the BCS title game, completely flamed out. He was suspended for the Tigers’ bowl game a year later and released from his scholarship shortly thereafter; before long he’d been booted from Arkansas State, too. The words “drugs” and “guns” are attached to him now.

Three guys with different football journeys, but each faced with major choices while on the long, wide, perilous college road.

The top offensive skill player from the Class of 2012, Missouri wideout Dorial Green-Beckham, made poor choices as a freshman. Now he has a marijuana arrest on his record, along with some paltry receiving numbers.

Even Johnny Manziel, the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy, has been on a public trial of sorts for some of his offseason choices. We’re talking about the 2013 offseason, not the 2012 offseason (during which he was arrested after brawling on the street and then showing cops a fake ID).

It’s not easy being a manchild. Just ask Manti Te’o, who spent most of four years “earning” his opportunity at Notre Dame only to see his intellectual and emotional maturity suddenly questioned by millions. If he could go back and make different choices about whom to befriend and whom to trust, he surely would.

All these players who pick their schools Wednesday need to know: It has little to do with where they’re headed. Those choices don’t even begin to define them.